Teams: Men's Tennis: Team Overview

►Coach Eng earns Master Pro distinction

Tufts University Men's Tennis has a long history as a top national program in the NCAA's Division III. The team plays a very competitive schedule as a member of the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC), the premier conference in the country.

Over the past three decades, the Jumbos have regularly been ranked among the top 25 teams in the nation and have made NCAA playoff appearances six times since the conference allowed post-season play in 1994. In recent years, several players have garnered All-American status and represented Tufts at the NCAA Championships.

Coach Doug Eng's 2008-09 team enjoyed its most successful season in seven years. With nine victories, Tufts had its best total since since the 2001-02 season. The Jumbos were ranked 30th in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) poll for most of 2008-09. In the very competitive ITA Northeast Region, Tufts is ninth in the rankings. For 2007-08, Tufts was ranked 21st nationally in Division III for much of the season. The team finished 8-7 with most matches in the very tough NESCAC conference. Six NESCAC teams placed among the top 30 in the final ITA poll for 2009.

As members of the NESCAC, Tufts plays in the nation's most competitive small college conference academically and athletically. The NESCAC is a group of highly selective liberal arts colleges and universities that share an academics-first philosophy for intercollegiate athletics. The Tufts program has matched its competitive successes with academic achievement. The Jumbos were one of 36 teams in the country to be named an ITA All-Academic Team, the ninth straight year that they have earned that honor. An extraordinary seven players were recognized as ITA Scholar Athletes for 2008-09. The team often produces among the most ITA Scholar-Athletes in the nation.

The Tufts tennis team has split seasons in the fall and spring. In the fall, the team will compete in a few dual matches, the ITA Regional Championships and the Wallach Invitational at Bates. Most head-to-head dual matches, the NESCAC Championships and NCAA competition take place in the spring. For spring break, the team travels south for practice and plays a few out-of-region matches. During the season, practice is five or six days per week in the afternoons. Off-court training is twice per week during the season and three times per week between seasons. The team uses state-of-the-art training including Dartfish video-analysis and high-speed photography.

Located right outside of Boston, Tufts offers a well-rounded collegiate experience to student-athletes. Within its picturesque small-college campus, Tufts is a major university with "an unprecedented diversity of programs, exceptional faculty and bright and talented students," according to President Lawrence S. Bacow. The Athletics Department sponsors a varsity program of 28 sports that is among the most competitive in the NCAA's Division III. Tufts finished 10th in the 2009 Learfield Sports Directors' Cup, which awards points based on NCAA performances. The University's proximity to a world-class city renowned for its academic institutions is also a major draw.

Recent Tufts Tennis graduates have moved on to successful careers. About two-thirds go on to graduate school, medical school, law school or business school. The rest often establish successful careers in high tech or financial business.

Doug Eng, EdD PhD, has coached at Tufts for 14 years. In 2004-05, he was head coach of the women's team which produced Tufts' first two All-Americans and a record seven All-Conference players. Two years ago, Eng took over the men's team. In all of his seasons coaching at Tufts, the teams have achieved a national ranking. Eng's areas of expertise are in biomechanics, coaching theory and sports psychology. He has spoken at every major tennis conference in the United States and has won several national awards including Pro of the Year by the Professional Tennis Registry (PTR) and the US Professional Tennis Association (USPTA).

Eng is a PTR national clinician who has worked with over a thousand coaches. He writes regularly for TennisOne.com and was chair of several sport science committees. Eng competed USTA High Performance Training and has worked with dozens of ranked juniors, including a dozen who played Division I tennis, several who achieved ITF rankings and a couple who played on the Future Circuit. He has worked with a couple national champions and two Davis Cup players. In the past nine summers, he has directed programs at the Tennis Academy at Harvard University.